Padrão Espacial da Evolução do Emprego Formal: 1995-2003

Other studies have already identified differences in the spatial pattern related to theevolution of important labor market variables. On the one hand, the behavior of thetotal level occupation seems to spatially neutral. On the other, the pattern for formalemployment, as well as the degree of informality, is not. This is particularly truewhen it come to metropolitan versus non-metropolitan areas. These findings arebased on the PNADs, which national household surveys with stratified sample. Thisstudy tries to take advantage of another source of information, Rais, whichconstitutes an enumeration of the formal sector, to examine more closely whathappened to formal employment between 1995 and 2003. First, the results supportthose findings, as there are evidences of differences both in time and spatialevolutions. There was a weak growth in formal employment, and even netdestruction of jobs in the industry, in the first half of the period. From 1999 on,arguably as a consequence of the changes in the exchange rate regime, the rates ofgrowth went up substantially. Second, a process of decentralization took place alongthe whole period, once again in a more pronounced fashion within the industrialsector. The metropolitan areas, led by the two major ones?São Paulo and Rio deJaneiro?lost a sizable share of formal employment, which renders the indications ofPME biased for the Brazilian labor market for this matter.